For a long, long time sports bettors were limited to only being able to bet on a particular horse, team, player, etc winning with a betting company. The only way you could bet on a selection not winning was by backing all the other outcomes of the race.
In the instance of a traditional bettor, back versus lay makes it almost impossible to bet against a selection, but is now available on a large scale with the advent of betting exchanges like Betfair. In these circumstances, when the lay price for a particular outcome in a race is higher than the back price, or in other words, if there is a distinct disadvantage to backing a selection, then the bettor will actively seek to place the bet on the ‘favourite’, i.e. the horse, team, player, or whatever activity being wagered on.
Lay betting, on the other hand, is the process of betting on the outcome of an event that the outcome of which is not dependent on the score by time its end.
In the instance of lay betting, the concept is the same, i.e. which will be the favourite in a Remipoker match, not necessarily the score.
In betting exchanges, if the lay price for a particular outcome is more than the back price, then the bettor will offer a price that will attract whatever quantity of backing an event requires. The quantity of backing events is entirely dependent on the quantity of lay bets being offered, and as an example, a particular football match has 3 possible outcomes.
If there are 15 laying prices available, and if the score is not that crucial in determining one of the outcomes, then there will be 3 occurs in total.
However, if there were a market selling 3 outcomes with the score determined by a traditional score, then the number would be 6. This would result in 3 outcomes, but of course, lay bets on the score would be mutually exclusive of those selling 3 outcomes with the score determined by a traditional score.
One might speculate that in the event of a massivelyrouped betting exchange, where many people are placing bets simultaneously on the same prediction, then the result is that it will be very difficult to predict the outcome. Indeed, it is difficult to predict anything in advance with any certainty.
There are certain benefits and drawbacks associated with both the back and lay markets and their use should be made carefully. The advantages with the back markets appears to be more easily identified.
One is that the back market is not affected by a betting exchange cutoff thus allowing a faster rate of exchange finishing and taking profit or risk. Two, it is possible to bet in opposition to the bettors of other betting exchanges thus allowing a certain degree of protection to the bettors in the event of a showdown. This means that the bettors may bet against theema as a team, rather than against the individual bettor.
However, there are some disadvantages associated with the back markets. One is that the connection between the back and lay prices could be tenuous since a betting exchange transaction may take days to clear. This would mean that the betting could possibly be running for days preceding the actual event. Moreover, the traditional betting structure may be observable in the sport book since it is common to post bettors against the point spread and the moneyline.
The back market is also not prone to profit margins and cutbacks since the prices are more readily adjusted to the demand and supply. Moreover, since supply and demand commences with the matching of bets, it is possible that the prices could rise in the event of a large match scoring aggregator.
It is important to emphasize that the prices in the back markets are more often than not, subject to seasonal variations. This is the key marker to selection of the optimal back market between the traditional flow of betting activity. One should also note that the occurrence of an arbitrage will likely be easier in markets such as horseracing since the betting positions are less than half the length of a horserace.
Conclusion
Horse racing is a great sport providing entertainment and excitement to millions of people but keep in mind that betting is not based on one’s luck alone but on a number of factors, including the track condition and the horses’ fitness levels. Although there is no single formula to produce an optimal back market, an efficient use of horse race handicapping indicators can certainly result in an advantage.
